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com), a converted 18th-century mansion that's also a hotel and antiques shop (and
part-time cooking school). The flagstone patio here is an especially inviting place to
dine on mole dishes or the excellent chalupas, deep-fried tostadas topped with
shredded chicken, meat, peppers, and salsa. Travel out to the nightlife strip along
Avenida Juárez to find Mi Ciudad (Av. Juárez 2507; & 52/222/231-5326 ), a vibrant
big dining room with lively wall murals, featuring excellent mole and pipián sauces
(in either green or red varieties), as well as deeply soothing cream soups like chile
atole and sopa poblana .
In the hip Hotel Purificadora, a snazzy conversion of an old ice warehouse, the
Purificadora Restaurant (Callejón de la 10 Norte 802; & 52/222/309-1920;
www.lapurificadora.com) showcases a nuevo-Mexicano twist, courtesy of Mexico
City star chef Enrique Olvera. His recipes break the box, creatively mingling Euro-
pean techniques with Mexican flavors in dishes like slow-braised chicken with green
pipián, or jumbo shrimp with chipotle hollandaise. Similar creative fusion goes on at
intimate, low-ceilinged La Conjura (Calle 9 Oriente 201; & 52/222/232-9693 ),
where the tapas and entrees throw local Mexican ingredients into what is essentially
Spanish cooking—things like arroz negro con calamares (rice with squid cooked in
squid ink) or huachinango en alberino (snapper in wine sauce topped with mussels,
clams, and shrimp).
Pueblan cuisine is very much based on fresh-from-the-farm ingredients; to under-
stand that connection, stroll through the Mercado el Carmen food market (21
Oriente between Dos Sur and Cuatro Sur). While you're here, stop by the Cemitas
Poblanos stand to pick up a tortalike cemita sandwich, pillowy rolls traditionally
stuffed with meat, poblano peppers, white cheese, lush avocado slices, and a kick of
chipotles. There's an even livelier market in the small neighboring town of Cholula
(site of an immense pre-Columbian ruin, the Great Pyramid), a 10-minute drive out of
Puebla. The Mercado de Cholula (Camino Real a Cholula and Calle 20 Norte) has
not only loads of butchers, fishmongers, vegetable farmers, and spice sellers, it also
has a few fabulous quesadilla counters toward the back, where the corn tortillas
come packed with fresh cheese, earthy mushrooms, zucchini blossoms, and nug-
gets of fried pork skin.
( Puebla International (20km/12 miles).
L $$$ NH Puebla, Calle 5 Sur 105 ( & 888/726-0528 in the U.S., or 52/222/309-1919; www.
nh-hotels.com). $ Hotel Royalty, Portal Hidalgo 8 ( & 52/222/242-4740 or 01-800/638-9999 in
Mexico; www.hotelr.com).
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